Using an equalizer to boost the guitar’s input signal makes a lot of sense. It provides a clean gain and a lot of headroom. Aside from boosting the signal, it can, of course, be used to carve out specific frequencies. Unlike most overdrive pedals, an equalizer has the ability to be very precise with multiple frequency bands and can create special effects.

The downside to this specific pedal is noise. It uses cheap tantalum capacitors in the signal path. This creates a hissing sound when the sliders are moved away from the zero mark. The MXR 10 Band EQ is reputedly better, but I don’t own it and can’t comment about it further. (more…)